Newsletter: November 2008
New database entries
This month we have many new images from Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual and from the John C. Campbell Folk School. From Qualla there are a number of photographs of rivercane baskets, including those by Lottie Stamper, Carol Welch, Eva Wolfe, and Edmund Youngbird. There are also new scans of historical photos of Rowena Bradley and some of her baskets. From the Folk School there are some new images of ironwork by Oscar Cantrell. New Assistant Kate Carter has scanned numerous historic photographs from the Museum of the Cherokee; Kate and Anna are still working on the metadata for those. We expect to have them up soon.
New metadata template
The historic photographs of Rowena Bradley and last month’s upload of a few of Lottie Stamper are the first digital files put up using the new metadata Word template. We are finding this to be a useful way to eliminate mistakes. Our Scanning Assistants—Kate at the Museum and Lucas at Qualla—are inputting information into the Word template. These then go to Anna F. for descriptions and to Anna C. for metadata check and additions. Jason is doing quality control on digital files, checking image size, watermark, and overall compliance with our standards.
Consistency in terminology
This month Anna, Anna, and Tim met to hammer out decisions on consistency in database and website terminology. There is no firm agreement—using the dictionary, spell check, and various thesauruses—on whether we should be using “basketmaking” or “basket making.” Since most are material culture terms, we are depending on the Getty Thesaurus for many. For more specific local uses—“rivercane” vs. “river cane”—we are depending on published scholarship for establishing authority for local terms.
Contentdm
The Home Team is in communication with Contentdm support staff to keep a close eye on whether additional metadata is mismatched with digital files. On our end, we are now limiting access to Contentdm to Anna Craft, Serenity Richards, and George Frizzell. Everyone else will be submitting files with the Word template. Anna has begun correcting the mismatched metadata.
New Resource page up
The Mountain Heritage Center had worked with a student from Smoky Mountain High School on a senior project on Pisgah Forest Pottery. You can see this at:
http://craftrevival.wcu.edu/resources/k12-walterbstephen.html
We hope to add more senior projects to our Resources page.
New Penland page up
Penland has submitted a second interactive photograph; this one for the 1935 Weaving Institute participants. These are so interesting that we’ve put links to them in two places so they won’t be overlooked.
You can find these from The Story portal under Penland Weaving Institute:
http://craftrevival.wcu.edu/story/penlandweavinginstitutes.html
You can also find them from The People portal, under Penland:
http://craftrevival.wcu.edu/story/penlandweavinginstitutes_1934.html
and
http://craftrevival.wcu.edu/story/penlandweavinginstitutes_1935.html
Rivercane Basket Exhibit
Jason and Anna installed a new display at the Welcome Center on I-26. This small exhibit features rivercane baskets on loan from Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual and the Mountain Heritage Center with 4 interpretive panels: on rivercane, rivercane baskets, HL’s Cherokee Preservation Foundation basket project, and RTCAR (Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources) a collaborative project operated through the WCU Cherokee Studies Program. You can learn more about RTCAR at:
As part of the exhibit, we included stalks of cut rivercane and strips made ready for basket making.
Advisory meeting
We are working on a plan for our fall meeting—Wednesday, Dec. 17th. If you have suggested topics for discussion, please send them to me at fariello@wcu.edu.
Jason is taking a head count for lunches and partners’ supplies. If you have not done so already, please respond to Jason at: craftrevival1@wcu.edu.
In the a.m. session (10 a.m. until noon), the Home Team will demonstrate additions to the site and database as well as overall updates to the database and workflow. Advisors will meet new staff and Hunter Library personnel who are contributing their expertise to the project.
Afternoon meeting with Partners
As for the afternoon session, Partners, please think about your overall commitments to the project and where you are with these. We are also in need of the finding aids for a number of Partner collections. If you need to review this year’s grant, the application is on the Library Insider page. I will be working with the Home Team to evaluate where each Partner is in terms of promised submissions. We are looking forward to getting together again.
Anna
Hunter Library | Library Insider | Last updated: 12/3/08 Melissa Young